Kiwanis Key Club Gives High School Students Chance to Become Leaders
By Ralph Tweedie, Manotick Kiwanis
Kiwanis Manotick is proud to support 4 local high-school Keyclubs. One of the highlights of the Kiwanis Key Club year is the District Education and Leadership Conference (DELC) for Eastern Canada. This year DELC was held at the Intervarsity Circle Square Ranch in Brampton, Ontario, from Friday April 5th until Sunday April 7th. It’s an opportunity for Key Club students from across Eastern Canada Keyclub district to meet each other and experience team building exercises. Their weekend adventures started with a train trip with their Kiwanis chaperones.
Sessions started Friday with a Welcome Presentation and dinner. This was followed by a Silent Voice presentation, a non-profit service which deals with the needs of deaf people. They discussed the difficulties and challenges that deaf people face every day. The demonstration also involved learning some ASL sign language. All of the presentations were done in sign language by presenters who were totally deaf. An interpreter provided a simultaneous translation.
Nominations were put forward for the following school year district executive. The nominees gave presentations to support their candidacy.
The day finished with a fun session of karaoke.
Saturday morning, elections were held for next year’s district executive. It was noted that Maria Wheeler, a past student at St. Mother Teresa High School is running for Key Club International President. Maria was the International Vice President and was the first Canadian to be on the International Board.
Saturday morning finished with a choice of sessions. Attendees chose between “How to Garden a Healthy Mind” and “How Big is Key Club”.
The afternoon began with a presentation “How Lucky are We”. Next, the first time slot gave a choice between “Ground Up Goals” (i.e. How to prioritize goals) and “Cultivating Effective Teamwork”. A final time slot offered “Branching Out from Key Club” and a Trivia session.
These sessions discussed ideas such as prioritizing goals, sharing ideas with other clubs and learning from their mistakes etc. The concept of Interclub projects was discussed. The four Manotick Key Clubs have worked together on interclub projects for the past two years. Twinning clubs was discussed. Our clubs are currently working on a project to twin with clubs in the Caribbean.
Saturday evening, they held the award ceremony. We are proud to announce that St Mark High School Key Club came first for the Distinguished Club Award. The Award was based on the Blanket Drive that was initiated by St. Mark Key Club. It was extremely successful and became an inter-club project involving all Four of the Manotick Kiwanis Key Clubs. The community embraced the idea and overwhelmed our collection sites, the Manotick Legion and the Anglican Church.
The evening finished with the Governor’s Ball. A fairly casual dance and a chance to cement new friendships.
Sunday held a closing session and bus transfers to the train station in Brantford for the ride home.
Key Club is the oldest and largest service program for high school students worldwide. It’s a student-led organization that teaches leadership through service to others. Key Club teaches members lessons that will transcend their time in school and help guide them in the future. The first Key Club was established in 1925. Next year celebrates 100 years of service.
Featured Image: Julie Decelles, Terry Tomkins (their Kiwanis facilitator) and Mikayla Broadhurst accepted the Distinguished Key Club Award for St Mark High School.
